In fact, evidences of anti-Semitism in Italy were considered by many Italians to be an indication that Hitler was replacing Mussolini as the dominating force behind Fascism. Indeed, as time passed, Hitler’s influence on the policies of Italian Fascism grew.

Author A. Cassels explains that “where Mussolini might exhort his countrymen to emulate the deeds of the ancient Romans, the Nazi revolution of the spirit aimed at inciting the Germans, not only to do what the distant Teutonic giants had done, but also to be those same tribal heroes reincarnated in the twentieth century.” In other words, Italian Fascism sought to regain bygone glory, as it were, by dragging Italy, an industrially underdeveloped land, into the 20th century.